‘If you go way back, about 100 million years ago, Antarctica, Australia, and Zealandia were all one continent,’ Dickens said.

‘Around 85 million years ago, Zealandia split off on its own, and for a time, the sea floor between it and Australia was spreading on either side of an ocean ridge that separated the two.’

Expedition scientists will join more than 20 scientific crew members in drilling at six Tasman Sea sites at water depths ranging from 3,280 feet to 16,400 feet.

The cores hold fossil evidence the scientists can use to assemble a detailed record of Zealandia’s past.

‘Some 50 million years ago a massive shift in plate movement happened in the Pacific Ocean,’ said Jamie Allan, program director in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Ocean Sciences, which supports IODP.

‘It resulted in the diving of the Pacific Plate under New Zealand, the uplift of New Zealand above the waterline and the development of a new arc of volcanoes.

‘This IODP expedition will look at the timing and causes of these changes, as well as related changes in ocean circulation patterns and ultimately Earth’s climate.’